This invention relates to an infusion bag having at least one chamber for holding, for instance, tea, and more particularly to a double-chambered bag, the top of which is reinforced by a flexible strip that forms two pleated wings encompassing the top of the bag. The wings are attached to the bag, at least one wing covering the entire length of the bag and projecting beyond the bottom of the bag. The invention also relates to a method for packaging such bags, in which several bags are inserted in the same position in a rectangular box that opens on the top.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,192,605 describes an infusion bag of the type mentioned, in which the two wings of the strip made of flexible elastic material, such as aluminum foil, cover the actual bag on both sides and project an equal distance beyond its bottom. The purpose of the two projecting wings is to protect the base of the bag itself and to make the strip sufficient in length for handling the bag when the two wings are folded back and lying against each other.
Infusion bags of the above type are generally packaged in the manner described above. Thereby, the tops of the individual bags are so closely packed that it is difficult to grasp the tops of the bags and pull them out of the box, despite the fact that the material to be extracted from the bag collects at the base, especially in the case of double-chambered bags, whereupon there is a somewhat greater distance between the tops. But even this collection in the base of the bag, which causes a compression of the material during transport of the boxes, is disadvantageous, because the accumulation and compression of the material in the base of the bag leads to a reduction in the material surface, and the material is consequently extracted with greater difficulty upon infusion.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,614,934 describes an infusion bag in which the lower half of the chamber, which contains all the material to be extracted, is turned upward and laid against the upper, empty chamber half, whereupon the top and base of adjacent bags become positioned next to one another. Attached to the top of the bag is the middle segment of a V-shaped upright crosspiece that connects two strip pieces covering the bag on either side, which pieces are also connected along their three other edges, so that the folded bag is inside an open-topped pouch or sack that can be packaged in any position. When the infusion bag is used, however, the material will always remain in the lower chamber half, whereupon the extraction of the material is possible only in an incomplete manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,359,292 (FIGS. 1 and 2) describes an infusion bag having a strip attached in the middle of the bag top which covers the entire length of the bag before its use and would project beyond the bottom of the bag (FIG. 4), if the projecting length were not inclined along a fold line in the covering segment of the strip and folded around the bottom of the bag and upward, so that when several such infusion bags are packaged, the projecting length disappears between two adjacent bag bottoms. However, the projecting length is a positioning strap and not a pull strap, for it serves only to fix the strip in upright position during normal packaging of the bag, and is neither intended nor suited for serving as a handle in pulling the bag from its package, for the positioning strap is located at the bottom of the bag, where it cannot be grasped, as only the tops of the bags are revealed when the package is opened.